A sunken seating area is an inverted form of the platforms of the Egyptians and the Stylobates of the Greeks. It also creates an optical refinement which was a staple of the Greeks, making the space appear even large by sinking the sofa in to the floor and not breaking up the plane. Always wanted a circular sunken living room with a fire pit in the middle. After reading this however I'm thinking a raised living room would be pretty cool too!

This is what I want in my living room, a nice recessed seating area with a firepit in the middle.

The Villa Vals, dug into a hillside in the Swiss alps. This must be the adult Hobbit Home of my dreams

Awesome place to visit. The building is underground. Underground homes are an attractive alternative to traditionally built homes for some house seekers, especially those who are looking to minimize their home's negative impact on the environment. Besides the novelty of living underground, some of the advantages of underground houses include resistance to severe weather, an exceptionally quiet living space, an unobtrusive presence in the surrounding landscape, and a nearly constant interior temperature due to the natural insulating properties of the surrounding earth. The greatest draw for most, however, is the energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of such houses. Because of the stable subsurface temperature of the Earth, heating and cooling costs are often much lower in an underground house than in a comparable above-ground house. When combined with solar design, it is possible to eliminate energy bills entirely. Initial building costs are also often exceptionally low, as underground building is largely subtractive rather than additive, and because the natural materials displaced by the construction can be recycled as building materials. However, underground living does have certain disadvantages, such as the potential for flooding, which in some cases may require special pumping systems to be installed. Underground living has been a feature of fiction, such as the hobbit holes of the Shire as described in the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Underground City by Jules Verne. It is also the preferred mode of housing to communities in such extreme environments as Australia's Coober Pedy, Berber caves as those in Matmâta, Tunisia, and even Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Underground living is even being considered for the design of a future base on Mars. Completely underground homes need not be considered impractical or unaesthetic any longer. With today's technologies one can direct natural light into living spaces with light tubes. Virtual windows can provide any view one chooses by the use of cameras or internet cam feeds. Even whole walls can display whatever view one wants someday soon (wall-sized flat screen monitors are still too expensive to be widely used), possibly even with live ambient audio added. Also factories and office buildings would benefit too, for many of the same reasons (noise, energy use, security, community aesthetics, save space; park cars and trucks on top of it instead of next to it, etc.). Often, underground living structures are not entirely underground, typically if they are exposed on one side when built into a hill. This exposure can significantly improve interior lighting, although at the expense of greater exposure to the elements.

Rediculousness!!! Pullout Balcony - Would be amazing for your Tiny House - To connect with us, and our community of people from Australia and around the world, learning how to live large in small places, visit us at www.Facebook.com/TinyHousesAustralia

what urban dweller doesn’t dream of a piece of outdoor space… so cramped in our tiny boxes, even a little balcony would make our lives brighter. But we all know that any step outside the dimensions of your apartment is an expensive luxury. Dutch architectural firm Hofman Dujardin has designed the Bloomframe, an innovative window that transforms into a balcony with the click of a button. What an exciting idea! This dynamic balcony is flexible and can be installed in the variety of buildings.